Yeah, same here. I don't recommend the Denali to others unless they ask me about mine. The truth is most people who don't already know can't believe that it came from Wal-Mart, even less that it cost $157 originally. Those that do see mine and ask me how I like it. Some are looking for an inexpensive bike and I tell them it's great if you change out the brake pads and the shifters.
The used market here isn't bad, there is stuff available but Auburn is a huge biking community and good road bikes are usually sold by those who know the value of them. That's not to say you can't get a good bike for a decent price, but that it's not going to be as stellar of a deal as say, some of my ebay part scores. Mountain bikes on the other hand, come and go frequently on craigslist and can be found for a great price as they are the bicycle of choice for university students.
Not much of an update, but I finally figured out my shifting problem. Turns out that the Sora rear derailleur prefers jerky shifting (moving the shifter quickly from one setting to another) as opposed to the old derailleur which seemed to work better with smooth movements. That's probably intentional and related to the Sora's normal pairing with STI shifters, but either way now that I've figured out the proper shifting method I find that "hunting" back and forth between gears happens less frequently while shifting. Still no ghost shifts.
The discovery happened when I was trying to smoothly ramp it up into fourth gear or so when it started "hunting" again. I got frustrated and smacked the shifter which knocked it up to 5th or so. The back and forth shifting stopped.
For a while I was concerned it was the derailleur itself despite the fact that I can find no lateral play in it. I'm glad it's not, because as far as I'm concerned with friction shifting there is little need to go better than Sora considering the lack of inherent precision with this shifting method.
The Sora FD and Dura-Ace crankset make a great combination. Shifting up or down is incredibly smooth, quick, and quiet. Which is good because yesterday we went up some killer hills and I found myself needing the inner chainring to climb frequently only to have to switch to the outer so I could keep up my pace once over the top.
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